Gaslight Guns
Firearms. The great equalizer. Historically, firearms were developed when a young Exalt of the Dawn Caste, armed with a Plasma Tongue Repeated, wanted to kill someone very far from himself, slid a stone into the barrel, and pulled the trigger. From there, the technology expanded at a great rate. During the heights of the First Age, there were wholly mundane weapons which, in the hands of mortal men, were more deadly to masses of men than some of the magical weapons of war available to the Dynasts of the Realm today. To a great extent, much of this technology has been lost, but much of it remains. Some parts of Creation are reduced to using flintlock pistols, having entirely forgotten and rediscovered firearms the mundane way, while others retain the mechanisms to launch heinous amounts of lead, fully capable of chewing through masses of troops. Others have forgotten such powers ever existed, and surely would find themselves shocked to see fire and thunder from the hands of mortal men. A brief overview without the Fourth Wall In real life, firearm technology grew because it was very, very easy to train a soldier to properly use a firearm, and cheap to arm him with them, as opposed to training him to use melee weapons and arm him with suitable weapons, armoring him with suitable armor. It is a misconception that early firearms could pierce plate-mail. They could not. In fact, almost all forms of plate-mail forged in the times when plate-clad Knights and pistols/rifles overlapped had a black dent, often circled with a chiseled line - the armorer, having completed his work, would load a musket with a ball and fire it into the plate (often in the left breast) from close range, in order to 'proof' the armor. No, plate disappeared from the battlefield simply because it became too expensive, and masses of men with bayonet-ended long guns were something no armored knight wanted to charge at anyway - a flurry of gunfire would stand a good chance of finding a weak spot in his armor, or bringing down his horse, and even if he suvived that, he still had to get past the effective pike wall. The technology level of Gaslamp Exalted is, well, largely that of Gaslamp/Steam, with quite a bit of -punk thrown in. This is high enough that many modern concepts of firearm technology have been invented, and the very highest level of technology available in Creation (barring a first-age cache or something which has some mundane firearms in it,) is equavilent to the weapons wielded during World War I. We'll be perfectly clear; firearms are advantageous. They're easily made with machine tools, operate under less stress than melee weapons or bows or crossbows ever did, and can fire quite quickly. Guns are superior to melee in every mundane way - there is no practical reason a mortal man should want a melee weapon over a firearm if he can get one. Naturally, matters are different for essence-wielders and the Exalted. An Exalt with a Jade Daiklaive or an Oricalcum Powerbow is no less a threat now than he ever was, and mortal men with firearms are only marginally more of a threat to him than mortal men with bows ever were. An Essence-infused Exalt can leap the distances most men would consider to be safe ranged engagements, and can hack into units of riflemen. Of course, he's dangerous with a gun, too - Archery charms work perfectly well with firearms. As for artifact firearms, of course they're here. This is a setting where the guy with the huge sword over his back probably has a set of pearl-handled, blued steel six-guns riding in handmade, Clawstrider-leather holsters, and the elegant woman wearing the elegan ball-room dress has a derringer strapped to each ankle. The lanky man with the funky glasses has a bulky rifle that shoots huge iron bullets charged with electricity, and the tall woman with dreadlocks has a long, lever-action rifle over her back with a set of optic sights on the top, and the martial artist is wearing gloves which shock the people he punches. The Weapons Firearms come in as staggering a variety as swords ever did. There are firearms which are so primitive that they were never invented during the first age, only coming about as a recent invention in lands which lost all technology and are gradually learning the hard, ugly, magic-less way. There are weapons which can fire so many times in such a rapid pace that it becomes more akin to hosing an area with lead than taking aimed shots, and everything in between. The most common firearm in Creation is not the iconic revolver, but is in fact some form of scattergun. As was once said by a famous playright and marksman of the Scavenger Lands, Any man who intends to live outside of the comfort and security of a city must have to his name a weapon. Guns come in many designs, for many different tasks; as a professional fisherman will tell you there are many knives for as many ways of gutting a fish as exist, there are as many smoke-poles for as many uses of them as may be found. But, none are as indispensible as the shot-gun. If a man has only the means to purchase one firearm, it must be the shot-gun, for, as a fisherman may make do with but one long dagger, a man may make do with one shot-gun for as many purposes as his mind may devise. A solid scattergun is effective at defending one's home against bandits, hunting game, any task one may desire. It has not the range of a marksman's rifle, nor the rate of fire of a revolver, and is hardly a complicated monstrosity of a weapon, but it will serve adequately. On the far end of the spectrum, of course, are repeating firearms which would make even young Terrestrials' faces drain were they to find themselves on the wrong side of them. All are detailed below, in ascending order of technological advantage. The Reloading Action Firearms have magazines - and until the days of detachable magazines, the firers are stuck loading round after round at a time. Reloading is a discrete action taken during combat. It cannot be flurried with any other action. It has a Speed of 1 tick, and does not refresh Defense Values. Reloading requires full concentration - reloading with full concentration means that you may not use your Defense Values for any attacks that come at you, and can put a number of cartridges into your weapon equal to your Dexterity Score. Reloading while retaining a DV is difficult - it imposes a -2 external penalty, still cannot be flurried with any action except Reflexive actions such as dropping prone, using a defense value, or invoking a Charm, and only reloads your Dexterity score -2 rounds per tick - minimum zero. Tags Some new tags have been introduced. Here I will review the tags from Exalted which are pertinent, and explain the new pertinent tags. * Default Tags from Exalted. * 2 = Two-Handed. These weapons require two hands to fire, usually by shouldering them. * F = Flame Type. These weapons launch a gout of flame. * L = Lance Type. Increases damage to second Damage value when charging or bracing against a charging opponent. (Useful when you remember that m any rifles will have bayonet lugs and can be used as spears.) * O = Overwhelming. Damage after the slash is the innate minimum Damage of the weapon, rather than the usual limit of Essence, unless Essence is greater. * P = Piercing. The weapon halves the target's effective armored soak (rounded down). * S = Single Shot. Characters must use a miscellaneous action to reload the weapon after every shot. * New Tags. * Pi = Pistol type. When using identical weapons in each hand, their cumulative Rate may be added together, incurring no off-hand penalties. Implies a one-handed weapon. Would retroactively be effective on the Flamepiece from Exalted core, as well as a bow-gun. * Mb = Multibarrel. Weapons with this tag are sometimes found with multiple barrels. Each doubling of the number of barrels increases the weapon's cost by 1, and doubles the Rate of fire. Most often this is found on weapons with the S tag; implies that each barrel requires a seperate miscellaneous action to reload. * Sp = Surpressed. Weapons with this tag may have either an integral or removable surpressor that prevents muzzle flash and largely reduces the sound of the weapon firing. This tag implies a second statistic block for weapons with removable surpressors, and when using a surpressed weapon, allows a target to reflexively make his attempt to Reestablish Surprise - effectively, nobody has a clue where that shot came from! It also imposes a -3 external penalties on attempts to locate the shooter by the weapon's report. (This tag should be retroactively effective for blowguns and the like.) * Mg = Machine Gun. Machine guns are terrifying weapons that can sweep lead across an area. They may (usually) fire single shots, may always take short bursts and long bursts. A short burst is an aimed attack in the specific direction of a single target - a number of Short Bursts may be made up to the weapon's actual Rate, and they are Undodgable unless the target started off behind cover or partial cover (which he may reflexively go prone behind in order to gain a Dodge DV against the triggering attack and gain Full Cover against subsequent attacks.) A Long Burst is a long, continious stream of lead in a general direction. A Long Burst has one attack roll, made at the full attack bonus of the gunner. He may affect a number of individual, sequential targets along his line of fire equal to his Dexterity or the weapon's Rate (whichever is greater); these attacks function like Short Bursts do. Ammunition consumed per burst is variable, listed in the weapon's write-up. Long Bursts made against Mass Combat Units are effectively Area Attacks which can always affect the unit's full area - machine guns mow down massed men like a Glorious Scythe does, and have the benefit of not requiring the Magical Materials to do so. * Fp = Field Piece. This field-piece is usually a crew-served weapon, though it may be fired by as few as one man. They typically offer at least some modicum of cover to the gunner and crew (and indeed, it's not hard to retrofit an armored shield made from a couple of old tower shields or similar pieces of obstruction,) and (unless mounted on or built into a vehicle) are typically either immobile or at best very limited in mobility (such as being mounted on an axle with wheels which may be pulled by horses.) They have a crew requirement, but as a result of being semi-permanent emplacements, have the benefit of coming with large quanties of ammunition and being able to dig-in for excellent defensive power. Br = Break-Open. This weapon must be broken open for reloading - effectively this increases the length of the weapon's reload cycle by two Reload actions, as opening the rifle and extracting the previously spent cartridges and closing the breech with the new cartridges in place is spread across two additional Reload ticks. Ammo Types * B = Ball. A bit of a misnomer, Ball type ammunition offers neither penalties nor drawbacks. It fires with the stats listed, and nothing else, and can represent anything from a simple lead ball in a single-shot pistol, to the standard, round-nosed aerodynamic ammunition fired from modern pistols. Some weapons may not have a 'standard' type, in which case, they will default to the Ap ammo type; this will be evident in their lack of a "B" ammo. * Ap = Armor-Penetrating. Ammunition with the Ap tag implies the Piercing tag. On weapons that have a B type ammunition, Ap costs 1 resources more; if Ap is the default ammo type, it has no further cost. Ap ammunition is often made of alchemically-treated lead or other materials, including a complicated means of casting a lead slug around a hardened steel rod. * Sg = Shotgun. This ammunition type implies a scattering effect. Instead of losing Accuracy at range, this penalizes damage, by -1 die at long range and -3 at extreme ranges. Sg ammo costs the same as default ammunition. Though it has no bearing on combat (unless using a true behemoth artillery piece,) shotguns are also good at shooting large numbers of birds which are clustered together, as on a lake, making them excellent fowl-hunting weapons. * Fg = Frangible rounds. These are rounds that, through one of a variety of mechanisms, spread out upon impact. In soft tissue these are devastating, but their effect is greatly wasted upon armored targets. Much like the Frog-Crotch arrows, they add +4L to the damage of the weapon fired, but double armored soak. Their cost is one Resources dot greater than that of the default ammunition, owing to the high degree of care that must be taken in their manufacture to ensure they do not expand inside the barrel as they fire, which would destroy the weapon. * Tr = Tracer. With the right chemical or alchemical application on the rear of a projectile, it will leave a sizzling stream of light through the sky as it travels. Tracer rounds reduce the accuracy penalties; shots at long range have a -0 external penalty, and shots at extreme range have a -1 external penalty. Tr is never found alone - it combines with either B, Ap, or Fg, and increases the price by one resources dot. If the Tr ammo tag is not in an entry, Tr ammunition is not available for that weapon. Tracer rounds are very effective in Mg-tagged weapons, granting +2 successes on the attack roll. * Ir = Iron. In some parts of Creation, the Raksha are common, and they now know to fear the mortal hero who has figured out that he can have bullets cast of iron instead of lead. Iron bullets suffer a -1 external penalty to attack for being much lighter than lead, but (naturally) deal aggravated damage to the Fae and other things of the Wyld. Iron bullets cost no extra to make, and may be combined with the Sh, Fg, and Tr tags if they are available for the weapon in question. Primitive Firearms Primitive firearms are rare, usually found only in places far removed from the rest of Creation, where the technology of the past all crumbled during the Shogunate wars and was made like unto dust by the Contagion, that have begun to repopulate themselves and slowly discovered (or re-discovered) technology. Unable to produce the more advanced guns found closer to the Isle, they have turned to these crude designs, often used as support weapons. Bows have a distinct range advantage over these weapons, though they far outrange thrown weapons, and have tremendous damage compared to mundane bows. They have pathetic rates of fire, generally, which is sometimes compensated for by simply adding additional barrels. Pistol While any projectile weapon which one may wield in one hand, even a light crossbow, might be adequately termed a 'pistol', this section refers only to that class of weapon which is held upright to load, has powder and ball inserted and packed down it's muzzle. It is crude, primitive, and seldom effective. When wielded at all, it is most often wielded as a brace of weapons, which are fired and discarded. It outwardly resembles the Flame Piece, and is roughly as effective. They require a miscellanious action to reload, just as Flamepieces do, and are highly unreliable in moist environments. If remotely exposed to water, then the weapon fails to fire if the attack roll has more dice which do not score successes than which do score them. Immersing in water garuntees they fail. There are as many variations on this primitive pistol as can be imagined, from match-locks which actually require a burning match be touched to the powder, to more advanced flintlocks, and even wheel-locks which provide some limited protection against the water. They are almost never used by anyone who has access to better, as they are often expensive, and undereffective. Some such weapons may have rifled barrels or other qualities of craftsmanship; these all amount to little more than quality bonuses. Their one grace over typical revolvers and more advanced weapons is that their simplicity allows them to fire scatter-shot instead of standard balls. This weapon requires a Misc. action to reload, which may not be flurried with shooting it. Musket A long-gun, shouldered to fire, the Musket is a catchall phrase for primitive long-guns, as the Pistol is a catchall phrase for primitive one-handers. They follow all the rules of a Pistol as regards moisture and water. This weapon requires a Misc. action to reload, which may not be flurried with shooting it. Modern Firearms These weapons are those generally found outside the Realm. Although not as advanced as those the Realm uses as modern weapons of war, they are plentiful, ammunition for them is plentiful, and all throughout the Threshold and the Scavenger Lands, they can be had for cheap in most areas which are not despotic about weapon ownership. There is some degree of abstraction here - while it is seldom important to know the exact caliber of ammunition one's weapon fires, it helps to have a general idea of how heavy the round is for it. The 'average' example is the old gun in an adventurer or cowboy's holster - it's old and it's lost ground against the most modern weapons, mass-produced in machine shops, or those lovingly crafted by a master gunsmith. Mass production yields a higher quality of weapon, typically, and will be more expensive as the technology has only begun to spread. Simply model owning a newer weapon as you would model owning a higher quality weapon in Exalted - it gains a bonus, which may be distributed as you wish. Unless otherwise specified, these weapons require a Miscellaneous action to reload their entire magazine. Revolver, Derringer Coming in a wide variety of styles, Derringers are known for their unique ability to be easily concealed - in a hat, between a woman's breasts, inside a sleeve. They impose a -2 external penalty on rolls to made find a concealed derringer. Versions are made with only two shots (these usually have two barrels instead of a cylinder) that increase the penalty to find it to -3, whereas ones with larger cylinders (containing up to six shots) reduce the penalty to -1, but they are all largely junk; assassination weapons and weapons of last resort. They are most often found loaded with frangible or mushrooming rounds in order to give them an appreciable punch. Models are sold with integral surpressors; these are never multi-barreled and are typically very, very illegal. +Multibarrel derringers reduce the penalty to find them by 1, and increase their Rate to their magazine size, typically because all the barrels may be fired at once. Revolver, Light A light-caliber revolver, the likes of which is typically used for self-defense and carry by 'proper' ladies, it fires ammunition which is not significantly larger than the Derringer, but more powder and a longer barrel give it increased range and barrel pressure, resulting in an increase in damage. Models are sold with integral surpressors, which use the second (surpressed) statistic line, and models with removable surpressors cost one Resources dot more. Their low recoil allows them to empty their cylinders very quickly. Revolver, Standard The typical revolver; your standard six-shooter. Gunslingers trade in lead, and this is most often the wepaon they do it with. The barrels are not typically larger than those of the Light revolver, but they still increase the powder charge and the caliber, resulting in an increased damage. As with the Light Revolver, models are made with both integral and removable surpressors; the removable surpressors add a one-resources surcharge. Revolver, Heavy To be frank, some men simply have small penises, or at least small conceptions of their own penises. These men typically seek a way to compensate for this by having the biggest weapon they can find. And other men simply have a legitimate reason to believe they may be attacked by large game in quarters which would make wielding a long gun impossible. For both of these categories of men, there is the Heavy Revolver. Heavy, with a large, fat barrel, a heavy-duty cylinder with a lower capacity than most revolvers, the Heavy Revolver is for the same class of man who, if they were (or in rare cases, are) the Exalted, would choose a Grand Daiklaive. One needs no defense against a dead enemy, and creating corpses is what the Heavy Revolver excells at. This weapon cannot be surpressed, nor often denied. Though it does not require two hands to fire, firing this weapon one-handed reduces it's range to 10 yards unless the firing character has a Strength of 4. Shotgun, Light A lighter shotgun firing smaller cartridges, this weapon is a preferred fowling weapon. When loaded with bird-shot, it becomes capable of bringing down quite a number of birds at once, though bird-shot is extremely ineffective against larger targets. Shotgun, Break Action Whether over-unders or side-by-side, these are essentially advanced versions of the muzzle-loading long-gun. The most common have two barrels, though one-barrel cheap versions are often sold, and some crazies own quadbarrel versions. These are by far the single most common type of firearm in existance, and range the gamut from the rough, no-nonsense leadthrower used by farmers all across Creation to kill wolves, to elegantly-made, decorated and inlaid hunting weapons used by the upper classes and Dynasts on the Imperial Isle. These weapons are often sawn down (or manufactured with short barrels) by bandits and guardsmen alike, giving them carbine handling at the expense of range (This is the second stat block.) This is a simple modification that can be made to any shotgun by anyone with a hack-saw and a file, but it is permanent (at least as far as the craft of mortal gunsmiths goes.) The primary benefit of this kind of weapon over the muzzle-loaders of the more remote areas is that it can be readily loaded by break-open action, exposing the breech for direct reload, instead of having to reload each barrel individually. The stat block below assumes the cheapest single-barreled version, but the most common is actually the double-barreled break-open. Rate increases to match the Magazine size, as usual. Shotgun, Heavy A heavier shotgun slinging significantly more and heavier lead, the Heavy Shotgun tends to use the same break-open action as the regular shotgun. This type of weapon is generally overkill against most predators of livestock, and is most often used as an alternative to a big-game rifle for bringing down very large beasts like Yeddim or Tyrant Lizards. Sawing down this kind of shotgun is an idiot's move, reserved only for those who believe they may be engaging humanoids in tight quarters and who desperately need a fast kill. Shotgun, Lever-Action Based on the same action as the Lever-Action Rifle, the smoothbore lever-action shotgun uses a lever to extract the empty shell case from the chamber, cock the firing pin, and chamber a new round in one smooth action. Though not nearly as popular as the lever-action rifle it is a simple modification of, the lever-action shotgun is nevertheless appreciated by those who own one. Unlike the regular shotgun, sawing this weapon down is not an easy modification, as it would involve sawing through the spring-loaded tube magazine under the barrel, and undertaken by any old person would destroy the weapon. Nevertheless, there are carbine models available with no effective price difference, but which must be purchased that way. It fires the same cartridged shells that regular break-open shotguns fire. These weapons have a mammoth magazine capacity, but few people can load it's full capacity in a mere five seconds. A shooter may load up to their Dexterity score per tick of Miscellaneous Action they devote to loading the rifle with their full concentration. If moving or forced to evade/dodge an attack, reduce the number of rounds they may load by two. A Miscellaneous action made to reload this weapon may be aborted at any time. Light Rifle Mostly used for shooting vermin and training youngsters or trainees, Light Rifles produce less raw damage than heavy revolvers, though they are still capable of accurate firing far beyond the range of even a shotgun. They are not significantly cheaper than standard rifles, but they have niche fans, particularly among marksmen who enjoy shooting for sport. They, naturally, come in versions which have been made shorter, for easier portability. Rifle Accurate far beyond the effective range of bows and crossbows, the rifle is the predominant weapon of hunters and non-Realm/Seventh legion military units. The carbine version is the favorite of cavalrymen who can obtain it, and generally, the only people who don't want one are those who have more advanced versions, such as the lever-action models. Older rifles are break-action, like most shotguns, but newer ones are breech-loaders which can pull open the breech without snapping the entire barrel assembly down. They are functionally identical, but the breechloader is the obvious precursor to the bolt-action rifles being manufactured in Lookshy and the Realm, and a clever gunsmith could certainly modify a breechloader into a bolt-action rifle with an internal magazine with some time and effort. The standard ammunition for this sort of rifle in the hands of militaries is hardened steel in a shell of lead and brass, and effectively is AP, though rounded ammo coated in brass, or even naked or semi-naked lead, is more common for hunters and assassins. Single-barreled versions may be surpressed, or multiple barrels may be used, but not both at once. Although cutting it down to make a carbine is possible, it requires a gunsmith, and it's more common to get one made that way originally. The first statistic line is an unsurpressed rifle, the second is an unsurpressed carbine. Either may be made to have multiple barrels, or a surpressor, but not both Heavy Rifle Often used to bring down very large game, these cumbersome, unwieldly rifles are the favorites of Dynasts and Heroic Mortals alike, who habitually hunt down and kill very large, dangerous animals (and even more magical beings) for sport. Throwing huge rounds which can range from half an inch to three quarters of an inch across, the Heavy Rifle brings incredible power that even mortal men can wield, perfect for bringing down rampaging pachyderm, and of course various species of minor spirits and elementals. These are almost never found in 'short' versions, since (as a general rule) you want to be as far away from such beasts as possible when you start shooting. Nevertheless, since someone will want the stats, they have been provided. Rifle, Lever-Action A "gun which may be loaded once and fired all week," the Lever-Action Rifle is one of the newest inventions to hit the Scavenger Lands. A tubular magazine underneath the barrel holds a large number of rounds, and when the lever is worked, the mechanism smoothly ejects the cartridge currently in the chamber (if any), cocks the firing pin, and loads the next cartridge into the chamber. It's a good, solid device, but it has it's drawbacks. Owing to the tubular nature of the magazine, pointed (and hence, armor-penetrating) rounds may not be used, lest the jerk of the rifle as it discharges cause the tip of one bullet to act as a firing pin for the next, thus blowing up the magazine (and probably the shooter's supporting hand) spectacularly. The mechanism is also somewhat prone to jamming, though not so much so that it requires rules to handicap it to express this. Like the Lever-Action Shotgun, it comes in both full rifle and carbine sizes; and like the Lever-Action Shotgun, being a carbine leads directly to a lower ammunition capacity. These weapons have a mammoth magazine capacity, but few people can load it's full capacity in a mere five seconds. (They would have to load three rounds per second!) A shooter may load up to their Dexterity score per tick of Miscellaneous Action they devote to loading the rifle with their full concentration. If moving or forced to evade/dodge an attack, reduce the number of rounds they may load by two. A Miscellaneous action made to reload this weapon may be aborted at any time. :Yes, that is the ammunition capacity of the legendary Winchester rifle! There's a reason it won the West. Multibarreled Hand-Cranked Mechanized Field Gun This weapon spits a lot of lead in a short time. A lot of lead - it's effective Rate, if broken down, would be ten per combat tick. Instead, it's effects are modeled by giving it a high accuracy, a relatively high damage, and an effect - attacks from this field piece are Undodgable, as per the Machine Gun tag. Weapons such as this, deployed in a good position, can make attacks by conventional armies utterly impossible, no matter how large and well-armored, absolutely requring the intervention of dramatic heroism in order for an attacking force to make headway, as even a prolonged bombardment will not dislodge a hardened emplacement for long. This specific weapon has a number of rotating barrels, and is fed from ammunition feeds on the top. It eats through cartridges at a prodigious rate, and is chambered in heavy rifle calibers, resulting in a truely heinous amount of carnage being delivered. It has it's flaws, however - in addition to requiring a gunner, it needs two men to feed it ammunition via it's two feed chutes - one is firing while the other is reloading. It also requires two men to make gross directional changes greater than the weapon's traverse - typically, this requires it to cease fire. The weapon is relatively unaimed - though the scattering effect will give good results, snipers with long-range, accurate rifles can pick the crew off from beyond their effective range, and field guns can likewise attempt to engage it from beyond it's effective range. To say nothing, of course, of battlefield Sorcery. This weapon cannot be used for single aimed shots. A short burst consumes ten rounds, a long burst consumes sixty. :Although this weapon's statistics and, indeed, name, are obvious references to the Gattling Gun invented by Dr. Hiram Gattling, it is typical of pre-1900s machine guns, and can just as easily be used for weapons such as the Maxim Gun (which bears striking resemblance to what will be future Browning machine guns,) and Gardner Gun. It need not be hand-cranked; some models of Gattling's gun operated using gas to rotate the barrels, and later on, some models would even use electric motors to rotate the barrel, resulting in truely horrific hellstorms of fire which are best represented as simply picking an area and declaring all the Extras occupying that space to be dead. Mechanized gun technology isn't yet +This weapon has two feeding magazines, which the gunner may switch between reflexively. Typically, one is emptied while the other is loaded by his gunnery crew. Two men can keep him reloaded such that he never stops firing. Advanced Weapons These advanced weapons are only fielded in numbers by the militaries of the most industrially advanced nations and empires in Creation - specifically, Lookshy and the Realm. =Ranged weapon template, modify as needed.= Category:Exalted